I made a new compression algorithm
Details
- External ID
- 46809546
- Source
- HN
- Company
- —
- Product
- I made a new compression algorithm
- Website domain
- github.com
- Launched
- Jan. 29, 2026
- Cohort
- —
- Upvotes
- 9
- Upvotes percentile
- 0.461133069828722
- Tags
- —
- Fetched at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.
- Updated at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.
Enrichment
- Theme
- scientific computing and research algorithms
- Vertical
- Horizontal
- Function
- Dev tools
- Audience
- Developer
- AI stance
- Not AI
- Project type
- Hobby / open-source project
- Normalized one-liner
- compression algorithm
- Manually corrected
- False
Could you build this?
No Inventing a novel lossless or lossy data compression algorithm requires specialized theoretical computer science, information theory, and low-level algorithmic mastery.
What it would actually take: Developing a novel compression algorithm involves designing custom entropy coding (e.g., ANS or arithmetic coding) and context modeling techniques evaluated mathematically against Shannon entropy limits. Implementation is typically done in C/C++ or Rust with extensive SIMD optimizations and careful memory-layout engineering. This requires deep research expertise in data compression and information theory.
Discussion
10 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: Zstandard (Zstd), Brotli, DEFLATE, LZW
Concerns raised: 8-10x slowdown vs. existing algorithms, Only 0.2% compression ratio improvement over outdated algorithms, README contains technical inaccuracies (ZIP/LZW confusion, DEFLATE details), Design inherently sacrifices speed for marginal ratio gains, Unclear if concept is genuinely novel or AI-generated without domain validation
Feature requests: Implement Weissman score benchmark
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one — 369 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #168 of 370 (itself plus its competitors, highest first — normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 90 days after the earliest competitor.
- I compressed videos by upto 78x while preserving faces,text and details · hn · 2026-08-28 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.61
- UltraCompress · hn · 2026-05-08 · 6 upvotes · similarity 0.58
- RTI · github · 2026-09-10 · 14 upvotes · similarity 0.57
- The Token Company: Intelligent compression for LLM context bloat · yc · 2026-03-03 · 25 upvotes · similarity 0.57
- A luma dependent chroma compression algorithm (image compression) · hn · 2026-02-04 · 59 upvotes · similarity 0.57
- TurboQuant for vector search · hn · 2026-03-29 · 89 upvotes · similarity 0.56
- TurboQuant · ph · 2026-03-25 · 295 upvotes · similarity 0.56
- FastLanes based integer compression in Zig · hn · 2025-12-01 · 12 upvotes · similarity 0.55
Other launches for this product
- No other launches for this product.
Same idea, different domain
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